We reached the Summit Cirque on the fourth day of a short backpack trip doing the Horseshoe loop starting over Cottonwood Pass. Over the course of the trip, we camped out at Chicken Spring Lake, two nights at Soldier Lake and the last night at Long Lake under the stars after the Cirque ascent. In doing Cirque we dropped packs at New Army Pass and day hiked the summit. The summit provided a beautiful view over the Cottonwood Lakes on a perfect August afternoon.

Surprisingly easy trail in and out, wasn't sure of the mileage so I ran quite a bit which paid off due to impending rain/snow clouds that descended early in the afternoon. Ridiculous views of Kings Cyn and Whitney range! Sandy trail tolerable due to precip from the night before. Fresh dusting of snow still lay in shaded recesses and Langley's slope, bet there's even more now. tee hee

Went solo (again!) from 12k when my partner tired out. I went up the right side of the north slope. Mostly class 2 with a few mild class 3 sections. Had quite a scare when some rocks slid out from under me and a refrigerator sized boulder above me shifted a few feet - took a while to stop shaking. Beatiful summit. Came down the left side of the north slope, a few use trails here. Got rained on on the way down.

Strolled up to the top during a backpacking trip in the Cottonwood Lakes basin. We were camped at Long Lake and took our time heading up. Lots of people on the New Army Pass trail and around the lakes, but they were all focused on Langley - we were the only ones on Cirque all day. Plenty of SPers in the summit register - and not many others. Great views of the Southern Sierra from the summit - a great reward for a very moderate effort. Highly recommended.

Hiked with Peter (below). We did the Cirque Peak traverse loop with an alternative descent. For some reason, it was harder than expected; I think we all had some altitude issues as it took longer than other harder peaks I've done in the past. Although being long, the approach over NAP is downright beautiful!

Oh, yeah, as Peter mentioned, from NAP to the summit seems to take forever?!

From our High Lake camp, we took a route from the lake that involved some 3d class rock. Took us less than 2 hours. On the return, we followed the northwest ridge to New Army Pass and dropped back down along the switchbacks to High Lake.

Interesting landscape at the summit plateau connecting Langley and Cirque. Saw a few jackrabbits in this very desolate terrain. Nothing tough, but just a long ridgeline traverse that was a lot longer than it seemed.